Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dennis Graves]

I have spent a lot of time building playlists: each playlist is all the movements of a classical piece and the name of the playlist is the name of the piece (eg, Brahms Symphony no. 1).  That is really the only practical way for a classical listener with many works to use JRiver.  I saved or exported the playlist to the external drive on which my music is stored. That drive was D:, but JRiver recently did what it periodically does: for some reason changed the drive to E:. I was able to clear the library and reimport the files so that I did not lose my music.  HOWEVER, the playlists disappeared and I see no way to import them.  CAN THE PLAYLISTS BE IMPORTED SO THAT I DO NOT HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE VERY LABORIOUS PROCESS OF RE-CREATING THEM ALL OVER.  This is a critical issue as it is highly likely that I will again in the future have to clear the library and re-import everything. 
And how do I keep the library clear function from clearing out the playlists?

[Alex B]

JRiver Media Center does not alter the drive letters. The operating system may forget the previously used drive letter if you have the external drive disconnect when you connect some other device like a camera or a flash memory drive and the other device gets the same drive letter.

You can change the drive letters with Windows Disk Management tool (run: DISKMGMT.MSC). It might be good to change the external hard drive use the highest free drive letter (X, Y, Z,...). Then Windows will be more likely to always use the same drive letter.

When the Windows drive letter has changed you can adjust the file paths inside the library with MC's tools. There is no need to clear the library. For example, you can change all D:\ strings to E:\ strings in the filenames. The playlists that are inside the library will be adjusted accordingly. You can find links to detailed instructions here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=57922.msg392381#msg392381

To fix the problem you could change the drive letter back to D: and then restore a library backup file that precedes the incidence (File > Library > Restore Library). Once the library works again you can change the drive letter e.g. to X: and fix the library files to point to X:.  EDIT: or just change the drive letter directly to X: or similar and fix the restored library to use it.

Alternatively you could fix the drive letters inside the exported playlists, but you would need to use a find & replace tool in some external text editor.

In the future when you export a playlist you can enable the "relative" option and export to the root folder of external your drive. Then the directory paths inside the playlist start from the next folder level, not from the drive letter.

[Dennis Graves]

I have not been able to find the steps to allow me to change the drive letter part of the playlist path, which is evidently the problem (playlists will not play because JRiver says "there is nothing to play" when I click a playlist). I cannot find the "rename, move and copy files tool", so I cannot use it to change the drive letter part of the playlist path. What are the precise steps to get to that tool?
Also, I have not been able to fix the problem with a "find and replace" editor because the files are mr3 and I have no program that will open and read such files.
Thanks.

[Dennis Graves]

Further point re not being able to use the find and replace or rename, move and copy files tools:
The examples to which you referred me appear to apply only when there is a JRiver readable/modifiable file that can be highlighted and thereafter modified.  (After selecting, you right click and go to the library tools.) BUT, the problem appears to be that playlists are not such files -- there is no option anywhere that I can find to modify or correct the path to a playlist .m3r file. 

[MrC]

I don't know anything about the .m3r files - they may be just text files that you can open (using Open With in Windows) using any text editor.  Make a copy of one, and give it a try.

[JimH]

m3u ?

[MrC]

Yeah, the OP mentions both "mr3" and "m3r", so it would be good to get some clarification.

[Dennis Graves]

Yes, of course I meant m3u, since that is the file designator that your playlists use.  If I open in MS Word, change the drive designation and save, it does not solve the problem:  I then cannot open the file and see the playlist in JRiver. I expect that is because the file opens in Word as a .txt file and, presumably, then saves as a .txt file, which JRiver evidently does not see as a playlist file.

[MrC]

Enable viewing File Extensions in Windows, and then just change the file suffix.

In Windows 7, just type Folder Options in the Start Menu > Search program and files, and launch it.

Then, go to the View tab, and disable Hide extensions for known file types.

Now, change the file suffix, ensuring it is .m3u as required.